The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-26
Scientific Poison ing.

Scientific Poison ing.
Some years ago DR.. j. B. de Lacerda,
learned scientist of Brazil. conducted
number of experiments for the pur-
pose of discovering an antidote for the
poison of venomous serpents. He at
last tried as q chemical antidote per-
manganate OF potassium injected into
The bite. and met with wonderful sue
cess. The result of his experiments he
published in book form, and at the
time his brochure attracted considera-
BILE attention among scientists. An ef-
fort was made in France to repeat his
experiments. but from one cause they
were without success. Believing that
there is a good deal of truth in what
Lacerda claims, DR.. Yarrow, of the
Smithsonian Institute, has undertaken
series of experiments with the poison
Of rattlesnakes, intending to use the
permanganate of potassium as an anti
dote. Various herbal preparations,
having the reputation among the coun-
try folk Of being remarkably efficacious
in cases of snake bites, will also be
tried, and a mad stone," popularity
supposed to be possessed of great vir-
Tue. has been procured and will be
tested in order to set at rest once and
forever the conflicting opinions on
this much-debated subject. DIR. Var
row has procured four fine specimens
Of rattlesnakes from Loudon county,
Virginia, and during the last week he
has been collecting from them guam
tity Of venom. The manner Of doing
this was as follows: Taking long
stick, to the end of which was securely
fastened broad leather strap. he con-
fined the latter loosely about couple
Of inches from the end of the stick so
as to make loop below which could
be drawn tight. Armed with this
instrument he caught the reptiles one
by one by passing the loop over their
heads. An assistant then held long
thin stick, to the end of which was
attached n piece of cotton wool satu-
rated with glycerine. to the mouth of
the snake, and he was made to bite the
wool which soaked up the venom
emitted freely by the angry creature
as 1t buried its fangs in its inanimate
enemy. The poisonous virus having
been thus extracted from the serpents,
1t was soaked out in an ounce of gly-
cerine and the operation repeated on
the following day. A drachm and
half Of venom has thus been secured,
or more than enough to kill thirty
men.
The experiments will be conducted
on pigeons and rabbits. A certain
quantity Of the virus sufficient to kill
will be hyperdermically injected into a
pigeon as the first experiment Then
little more than was enough to kill
will be injected into another pigeon and
Immediately followed by an injection
Of the permanganate of potassium,
which it Is believed will prove an anti
iote. The experiments will then be
continued. allowing varying spaces of
Time to elapse between the injection OF
the virus and the application of the
antidote. In this connection DR.. Var
row is anxious to find q man who
would like to be bitten by rattlesnake
in the cause of science. and who would
be willing to take his chances Of sur
viving the experiment Should an an
tidote for snake poison be found by
Dr. Yarrow in the course of these ex-
periments, he will confer an incalcula-
BILE benefit upon the country. - Wash-
ington Capital.